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Cons:

"The Mind Shall Vanquish the Sword!" declares the packaging of Dynasty Tactics, and while I personally would much rather go into battle with a two-foot blade of glistening steel than with a three-pound lump of clotty gray matter, I understand the implication of Koei's tagline. While Dynasty Tactics isn't as mentally taxing as Romance of the Three Kingdoms VII, it's definitely not for those whose deepest thought during the course of a typical day is, "Should I biggie-size my combo meal?"

The game's mandatory (and excellent) three-part tutorial teaches you the basics of the game's battle sequence, which anyone who's played other console games with "tactics" in the title will quickly grasp. You and your opponent maneuver your various troops -- infantry, cavalry, archers -- across a battlefield which has been conveniently divided into a 16 x 16 grid. The terrain type of each grid square -- plain, hill, forest, river -- affects both troop movement and combat conditions.

While you can attack enemy units directly, you won't do much damage with such simple-minded assaults, and your foes will most probably point and laugh at you. Thus, the key to victory, and the gameplay mechanic that will make your skull throb, is the use of tactics and tactical combos. Each of your commanding officers has certain tactics he can execute, but only under certain battlefield conditions. Each tactic can only be used once per battle, although one of your used-up tactics is randomly restored if you defeat an enemy unit. You can also occasionally snag an enemy's tactic by attacking the enemy unit from behind, or by defeating the unit with one of your own tactics.

An example of a tactic with a simple condition is "pierce." If an enemy unit is adjacent to and in front of your unit, you can launch a brutal attack and advance three squares past the enemy unit. An example of a tactic with a complicated condition is "aid." If an allied unit is adjacent and to the side of your unit, and there's an enemy unit adjacent to and in front of the allied unit, and both you and the allied unit are facing the same direction, you launch a simultaneous attack with your ally. Follow all that? Yeah, it sounds confusing, but after playing the game you'll get my drift.

Now, then. While individual tactics are somewhat effective in bringing the pain, the real damage is done with tactical combos. If you use a tactic that triggers the conditions for a second tactic, that second tactic is automatically executed. If the second tactic sets up a third tactic, that third tactic is unleashed, and so forth. An enemy unit that gets whacked with three or four tactics in succession is invariably beaten like a redheaded stepchild. Setting up tactical combos requires a high degree of planning, forethought, and hoping that the PS2-controlled units fall into your clever traps.

Oh, but there's more. Certain commanders, known as "strategists," can select a tactic without immediately using it, locking the targeted enemy unit(s) in place. This maneuver is referred to as a "tactical link." Links are triggered when an allied unit uses a tactic, regardless of the ally's location, which allows you to pull off otherwise impossible tactical combos.

The tutorial mode is a master of understatement.

In between battles, you're whisked away to a detailed map of China on which you save and load your progress, move troops, establish bases, dispatch envoys, recruit civilians, and start fights. This is also where the storyline of the campaign is developed, which is bad and good; bad, because you have to wade through an awful lot of RPG-style text boxes, and good, because it isn't read by the same three voice "actors" that try their best to deflate the drama of the battle sequences.